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THE PREEMPTIVE TRIGGER - SHOOTING FIRSThttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139077-THE-PREEMPTIVE-TRIGGER-SHOOTING-FIRST&goto=newpost
Wed, 23 May 2018 15:54:47 GMTTHE PREEMPTIVE TRIGGER - SHOOTING FIRST (http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2018/05/can-you-justify-shooting-first.html) Wednesday, May 23, 2018 (http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2018/05/can-you-justify-shooting-first.html) Image: http://warriortalknews.typepad.com/.a/6a0133ec985af6970b0224e03b5db5200d-500wi (http://warriortalknews.typepad.com/.a/6a0133ec985af6970b0224e03b5db5200d-popup)
Real fights are not mutually agreed upon combat, like some Karate Kid match with rules. There isn’t a start signal. You are either focused on the event or you are not. If you are not focused and ready, then the start signal will be you getting shot…or hopefully shot at and missed. We are here to discuss the other side of that, the proactive side.
You are not only on scene at ground Zero, but are ahead of the wave so to speak. Not reacting to something completely unexpected, but rather acting deliberately. This is no small matter as we are talking about drawing your pistol and shooting another man, or men. So how do we cross that gap?
Before continuing, I suggest you review the flowchart we published some time ago. Linked here for your perusal (http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2018/05/the-flowchart-of-justified-killing.html).
There are points that help you get closer, arrive at the decision to shoot...bridge the gap. These involve value judgements on the focus of your attention and the perceived danger they present. For example, in the recent Texas school shooting, a trench coat alone would not be enough, but seeing the muzzle of a weapon peeking out from under it might be.
That doesn’t necessarily mean immediate shooting. What we are discussing is getting your mind there where you know you can 100% justify taking the shot and killing the suspected terrorist. If your decision has been made based on what you see and can explain, taking deadly force action is not difficult.
There are degrees of preemption.
There is immediate preemption. This is acting – drawing and shooting - at the point of sight. For that you need prior legitimate intelligence on the threat. For example, some students of mine eliminated a terrorist that was expected to appear at a venue with an explosive device. They had a description from a man on the inside and all the intelligence they received had been vetted.
When they saw him walk in, nervously with the backpack, hoping to kill a bunch of infidels, they acted directly and preemptively. The text message I received right after was “Suarez Students – 1, ISIS – 0”.
If questioned, my guys would have been able to say that what they knew for a fact, based on verified legitimate information (not just suspicions), that based on the proximity of multiple citizens in the vicinity, the risk in the suspect detonating his explosive device precluded them from any other methods of apprehension or detention.
There is preemption as he begins his action...intercepting him. For that you need reasonable expectation of his action, so you arrive at the trigger before he does anything but you are already there when he does. For example, it is 2018, and the reality of terrorism is the new normal. As well, the prevalence of active shooters seeking their moment of fame. To see a man wearing a trench coat during hot and humid weather is enough for any reasonable man to take notice and maybe keep the individual in the corner of his vision. To see the front sight of an AK-47 barely covered by the hem of his coat gets your mind right there. The point is arriving at the decision to shoot…crossing the gap, and being ready. Your thought process is, “that man right there is armed with a rifle, carrying it in a covert manner, and behaving in a way that may be indicative of an active shooter…I am set to go”.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will fire at that point, although with enough information and back story, I suspect it could be justified. But the moment he opens his coat to bring up his rifle, your bullet should stop the action instantly. And your positioning should have placed you where you could see that.
There is preemption post initiation. This one is where most people will probably be, and sadly it will be late for someone. Here you shoot him the moment he deploys his weapon and fires at someone else. Either by unfortunate timing or by the inability to mentally justify the shot (not enough verifiable information and the subsequent hesitation) the terrorist is de-facto allowed to deploy and engage a target before you engage him. This will happen simply from the self-doubt and self-second guessing forestalls your action.
The point of this discussion is not fair play, but rather the most expeditious ways to stop a terrorist active shooter before, or as soon as he begins killing.
Learn to get your mind there - learn to see - and to bridge the gap mentally. Everything else will fall into place after that.THE PREEMPTIVE TRIGGER - SHOOTING FIRST

Real fights are not mutually agreed upon combat, like some Karate Kid match with rules. There isn’t a start signal. You are either focused on the event or you are not. If you are not focused and ready, then the start signal will be you getting shot…or hopefully shot at and missed. We are here to discuss the other side of that, the proactive side.

You are not only on scene at ground Zero, but are ahead of the wave so to speak. Not reacting to something completely unexpected, but rather acting deliberately. This is no small matter as we are talking about drawing your pistol and shooting another man, or men. So how do we cross that gap?

There are points that help you get closer, arrive at the decision to shoot...bridge the gap. These involve value judgements on the focus of your attention and the perceived danger they present. For example, in the recent Texas school shooting, a trench coat alone would not be enough, but seeing the muzzle of a weapon peeking out from under it might be.

That doesn’t necessarily mean immediate shooting. What we are discussing is getting your mind there where you know you can 100% justify taking the shot and killing the suspected terrorist. If your decision has been made based on what you see and can explain, taking deadly force action is not difficult.

There are degrees of preemption.

There is immediate preemption. This is acting – drawing and shooting - at the point of sight. For that you need prior legitimate intelligence on the threat. For example, some students of mine eliminated a terrorist that was expected to appear at a venue with an explosive device. They had a description from a man on the inside and all the intelligence they received had been vetted.

When they saw him walk in, nervously with the backpack, hoping to kill a bunch of infidels, they acted directly and preemptively. The text message I received right after was “Suarez Students – 1, ISIS – 0”.

If questioned, my guys would have been able to say that what they knew for a fact, based on verified legitimate information (not just suspicions), that based on the proximity of multiple citizens in the vicinity, the risk in the suspect detonating his explosive device precluded them from any other methods of apprehension or detention.

There is preemption as he begins his action...intercepting him. For that you need reasonable expectation of his action, so you arrive at the trigger before he does anything but you are already there when he does. For example, it is 2018, and the reality of terrorism is the new normal. As well, the prevalence of active shooters seeking their moment of fame. To see a man wearing a trench coat during hot and humid weather is enough for any reasonable man to take notice and maybe keep the individual in the corner of his vision. To see the front sight of an AK-47 barely covered by the hem of his coat gets your mind right there. The point is arriving at the decision to shoot…crossing the gap, and being ready. Your thought process is, “that man right there is armed with a rifle, carrying it in a covert manner, and behaving in a way that may be indicative of an active shooter…I am set to go”.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will fire at that point, although with enough information and back story, I suspect it could be justified. But the moment he opens his coat to bring up his rifle, your bullet should stop the action instantly. And your positioning should have placed you where you could see that.

There is preemption post initiation. This one is where most people will probably be, and sadly it will be late for someone. Here you shoot him the moment he deploys his weapon and fires at someone else. Either by unfortunate timing or by the inability to mentally justify the shot (not enough verifiable information and the subsequent hesitation) the terrorist is de-facto allowed to deploy and engage a target before you engage him. This will happen simply from the self-doubt and self-second guessing forestalls your action.

The point of this discussion is not fair play, but rather the most expeditious ways to stop a terrorist active shooter before, or as soon as he begins killing.
Learn to get your mind there - learn to see - and to bridge the gap mentally. Everything else will fall into place after that.
]]>GABE SUAREZ BLOG ARTICLESGabriel Suarezhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139077-THE-PREEMPTIVE-TRIGGER-SHOOTING-FIRST12 PRECEPTS OF THE SUAREZ SYSTEMhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139048-12-PRECEPTS-OF-THE-SUAREZ-SYSTEM&goto=newpost
Sat, 19 May 2018 20:41:50 GMTwarrior6.jpg

1). Defense does not exist – there is attack and there is counter attack

2). Everything begins and ends with marksmanship

3). Justify Shooting first

4). You must understand the role of initiative in the fight

5). Remember that it is not about the score, it is about killing

6). Your body must be capable of doing whatever you need it to do

7). Tactics exist to get you an angle for your shot

8). It is not about speed, it is about timing

9). Gunfighting is simply hand to hand combat at 1500 feet per second

10). Live as there was an enemy around every corner and behind every door

]]>GABE SUAREZ BLOG ARTICLESGabriel Suarezhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139048-12-PRECEPTS-OF-THE-SUAREZ-SYSTEMWEAKLINGS IN THE TIME OF WARhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139042-WEAKLINGS-IN-THE-TIME-OF-WAR&goto=newpost
Fri, 18 May 2018 19:10:08 GMTWEAKLINGS IN THE TIME OF WAR

I first used those words almost three years ago. Today we had the twenty-second mass shooting of 2018. And as I listened to the various commentators and political pundits on the various news stations on the drive to work, it occurred to me that not only are all of these pundits total fools, but the majority of the population have so declawed themselves as to be of no use whatsoever in an event like this. Truly they have self-selected as weaklings.
Here is a reiteration of the original - updated for 2018.

I want to talk about how you live in a time of war versus a time of peace. And you can protest all you wish that you don't want to live like that and that if you change your habits the terrorists win. Sure, but if they crush you and your family with a truck during a parade, or capture you and cut your balls off in front of your family like they did at the Bataclan Theater, they also win don't they. And well, if they kill your kids at a school...they win as well. So how about we set aside that passive aggressive hippy attitude and wake up to reality.

And "Terrorist" is the word I will use henceforth, whether they are motivated by an evil religion or by a mental disorder. In truth, their motivations are irrelevant at the moment of first contact.

In a time of Peace you can come and go as you please. You can congregate in the street to watch fireworks and listen to music. You can go to the theater, the parade, or to school in peace. You don't have to worry about anything really. Maybe the petty criminal is still a concern, but he can be easily avoided with some good common sense. In a time of Peace you can celebrate parades, you can go into a theater or a musical performance, listen to fiery speeches on any topic, attend school, go shopping, and visit any place you wish and feel relative safety.

In a time of peace Terrorists don't kill their co-workers at Christmas parties, or Nightclubs...or military bases. In times of peace Terrorists do not target white police officers for assassination. In times of peace you don't have Terrorists entering a school or a church and killing as many people as they can.

But we do not live in a time of peace...not any longer. We live in a time of war and we have to make adjustments to the way we live. In a time of war you have to be thoughtful about where you go. You have to analyze whether it is a hard target or a soft target...and you have to understand the difference. If you can, you avoid large congregations of people either in the open or in enclosed spaces. You have to sit with your back to the wall in the event one of your adversaries walk through the door to kill you and everyone else in the room. You have to profile everyone. In a time of Peace you can overlook someone's appearance, ethnic background, attire, and actions. But we don't live in a time of peace any longer, we live in a time of war, and have been doing so for almost two decades, so you have to take note of these things.

In a time of war you cannot afford to relax. You must be ever vigilant specifically of those groups that are most likely to bring the war to you. If that sounds unfair to you, if that sounds like you're being discriminatory, if it sounds like you're not following the "American way" where everyone is equal and seen as the same, then that is exactly what you're doing. Ask the dead in San Bernardino, and Orlando, and Parkland, and now Santa Fe, how they feel about profiling, non-egalitarian thinking, the rights of crazy people, or having access to guns for self defense.

Oh wait, we can't. They were killed by those whose rights America worries over daily.

But vigilance alone is a sad an empty action without the ability to act upon that which vigilance reveals. In a time of Peace you can leave the house with empty pockets, a smile on your face, a spring in your step and a song in your heart. But we do not live in such times. Today even if it is a violation of the law, a wise man will go armed. And if a man is tasked with protecting or leading others, their safety is his responsibility.

It was once said as a caveat before the carry of a weapon was suggested. "If you can legally get a permit - if you can legally do so - you should get a permit and carry a weapon". Today in the time of war that we live in I will say that you must carry a weapon regardless of legal standing. It has been shown time and again that the First Responders will rarely prevent an event like this. Let this one also burn into your mind for the reality that it is.

You Are On Your Own!

Although I have every respect for the guys rushing to the scene to kill the bad guy, hell - I was one of them some years ago - but the timing is just no there. How many people died this year alone, at the hands of the terrorist before they were on scene? And then there are those who won't go in to kill the bad guy out of fearful self-preservation, like in Parkland. I only have the deepest and seething contempt for those people.

You are on your own - leave the house prepared to do battle - every single day! Leave the house prepared to treat any injuries you may incur - every single day! These are the concessions that you must make in the time of war that we live today.

We live in a time of war and we must take the necessary steps as individuals to win that war.
]]>GABE SUAREZ BLOG ARTICLESGabriel Suarezhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139042-WEAKLINGS-IN-THE-TIME-OF-WARTHE TERRORIST, THE KNIFE, AND YOUhttp://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?139034-THE-TERRORIST-THE-KNIFE-AND-YOU&goto=newpost
Thu, 17 May 2018 17:31:07 GMTTHE TERRORIST, THE KNIFE, AND YOU (http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2018/05/the-terrorist-the-knife-and-you.html) Thursday, May 17, 2018 (http://blog.suarezinternational.com/2018/05/the-terrorist-the-knife-and-you.html) Image: http://warriortalknews.typepad.com/.a/6a0133ec985af6970b0224e03a74e8200d-500wi (http://warriortalknews.typepad.com/.a/6a0133ec985af6970b0224e03a74e8200d-popup)
All weapons are special niche weapons. Some of those niches are larger than others, but in its own world, each weapon rules the day. At ten feet, with a skilled and athletic gunfighter, the knife will not prevail. Make that gunfighter slow and overweight and the scale tips to the knife. Make the distance 21 feet (yes, I have seen the videos), and the fit, athletic skilled gunfighter wins every time – provided he has been properly trained. Change the battlefield and make it in an elevator, a bathroom stall, a confessional, or similar confined space and the knife has the advantage over the most powerful holstered, or drawn pistol.
We live in a time of war, and last week we heard of more jihadist attacks in France. So lets wake up on the matter of blades. You often hear about “surviving the knife attack”. First, that is the wrong attitude. One survives terminal disease, an unprepared night in subzero blizzard conditions, or a plane crash. A fight is something one enters into, willingly or not, with the idea of fighting like a man possessed and *with as much evil intent toward your attacker that the words “controlled rage” only begin to describe your mental state*. In other words, there are no limits.
*Incorrect assumptions about the knife:
1). The knife man will be unskilled.* This comes from the knife prejudice that the knife is the weapon of the fool, the pauper, or the unskilled thug. While there are fools, paupers, and unskilled thugs with knives, the same can be said for the gun world…perhaps more so. Assume the knife man is skilled and experienced. Oh, and as soon as you see what is beginning to happen, move, draw, and send half your magazine into his face. Or, hit him first with whatever you have on hand. Hard for him to stab you if he is on his way down five flights off the balcony trying to get his knife out. *
2). You will always get cut:* That is like saying in a gunfight, you will always get shot. We know that is not true and it is the same for a knife fight. Is it possible…even likely? Of course, but it is not inevitable. Knowing the probabilities should increase your degree of violence dramatically and rapidly. There is a loose corollary that the more violent you are, the more likely you will win. The longer the fight goes, regardless of weapons, the more likely you will get hurt.
*3). The knife man will attack you like in the movies…or (gasp) like in the dojo.* When I teach a gun-centric class, I teach the gun guys to maintain the status quo of distance past arm’s length. We teach them how to move quickly and dynamically. The reason is simple. The gun can project force whereas the knife must be within touching distance. Our guys defeat the 21 foot rule at 6 feet! But if I was teaching the knife against the gun, I would tell the knifeman to keep the knife out of sight. I would tell him to set the fight up where the gun man was in a confined area such as a hallway, restaurant booth, elevator, etc. Then I would tell him to close surreptitiously and attack suddenly. Don’t assume that others haven’t figured this out.
*
Solutions:* *
1). Learn some hand to hand skills for the zero to five foot realm. *The guy with the one second draw that has zero hand to hand skills will die not matter how good a shot he is, or how fast his draw is, if he does not have some way to deflect or nullify the initial attack. Disagree with me? Cool…come to a force on force class and show me. The beauty of today is that we can test everything. *
2). Learn to move. There is no compromise here. *A close range knife attack is not an egalitarian event where everyone gets a fucking trophy so their stupid feelings are not hurt. If you are too fat to move, you will lose and you will die. That can be fixed with a little discipline and some dieting, but a severed jugular cannot be fixed. If you can move, you can evade an attack and create the circumstances to access your weapon (pistol or knife). If you cannot move, your firearm will not save you. *
3). Consider where you carry. *Where can you get to your blaster the fastest? Where can you carry that will allow you to align your pistol on target with minimal preparatory work? Where can you carry so you can draw in a clinch, on your back in the guard, or pushed up against the wall while holding the attacker’s knife at bay? Where can you carry so you can draw and kill with either hand? I’m not going to tell you…you need to develop your own answer here.
*
4). For the guys that won’t have a gun, there isn’t an easy or clean solution.* Listen carefully…there is no secret technique for an unarmed man to defeat a knife attacker. And if you focus on the knife, grabbing for it and hoping the disarm you learned works, well…lets just say we wish you luck. What do you do then? You damage the knife attacker so he thinks about his pain and his self preservation more than stabbing or cutting you. Will you…might you get cut? Maybe…like I said, there is no easy answer.
The knife, like the ground fight, is a reality of possibility. And we keep seeing that our modern enemies like the knife and like its ease of access. To ignore it due to fear, or to make assumptions out of training laziness or physical sloth, is the sure path to failure. Do your study. Gather your intel and data. And then organize your skillsets so that the knifeman is in as much danger from you as you are from him. We live in a time of war, and our enemies use many different weapons.
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Share to PrintTHE TERRORIST, THE KNIFE, AND YOU

All weapons are special niche weapons. Some of those niches are larger than others, but in its own world, each weapon rules the day. At ten feet, with a skilled and athletic gunfighter, the knife will not prevail. Make that gunfighter slow and overweight and the scale tips to the knife. Make the distance 21 feet (yes, I have seen the videos), and the fit, athletic skilled gunfighter wins every time – provided he has been properly trained. Change the battlefield and make it in an elevator, a bathroom stall, a confessional, or similar confined space and the knife has the advantage over the most powerful holstered, or drawn pistol.

We live in a time of war, and last week we heard of more jihadist attacks in France. So lets wake up on the matter of blades. You often hear about “surviving the knife attack”. First, that is the wrong attitude. One survives terminal disease, an unprepared night in subzero blizzard conditions, or a plane crash. A fight is something one enters into, willingly or not, with the idea of fighting like a man possessed and with as much evil intent toward your attacker that the words “controlled rage” only begin to describe your mental state. In other words, there are no limits.

Incorrect assumptions about the knife:

1). The knife man will be unskilled. This comes from the knife prejudice that the knife is the weapon of the fool, the pauper, or the unskilled thug. While there are fools, paupers, and unskilled thugs with knives, the same can be said for the gun world…perhaps more so. Assume the knife man is skilled and experienced. Oh, and as soon as you see what is beginning to happen, move, draw, and send half your magazine into his face. Or, hit him first with whatever you have on hand. Hard for him to stab you if he is on his way down five flights off the balcony trying to get his knife out.

2). You will always get cut: That is like saying in a gunfight, you will always get shot. We know that is not true and it is the same for a knife fight. Is it possible…even likely? Of course, but it is not inevitable. Knowing the probabilities should increase your degree of violence dramatically and rapidly. There is a loose corollary that the more violent you are, the more likely you will win. The longer the fight goes, regardless of weapons, the more likely you will get hurt.

3). The knife man will attack you like in the movies…or (gasp) like in the dojo. When I teach a gun-centric class, I teach the gun guys to maintain the status quo of distance past arm’s length. We teach them how to move quickly and dynamically. The reason is simple. The gun can project force whereas the knife must be within touching distance. Our guys defeat the 21 foot rule at 6 feet! But if I was teaching the knife against the gun, I would tell the knifeman to keep the knife out of sight. I would tell him to set the fight up where the gun man was in a confined area such as a hallway, restaurant booth, elevator, etc. Then I would tell him to close surreptitiously and attack suddenly. Don’t assume that others haven’t figured this out.
Solutions:

1). Learn some hand to hand skills for the zero to five foot realm. The guy with the one second draw that has zero hand to hand skills will die not matter how good a shot he is, or how fast his draw is, if he does not have some way to deflect or nullify the initial attack. Disagree with me? Cool…come to a force on force class and show me. The beauty of today is that we can test everything.

2). Learn to move. There is no compromise here. A close range knife attack is not an egalitarian event where everyone gets a fucking trophy so their stupid feelings are not hurt. If you are too fat to move, you will lose and you will die. That can be fixed with a little discipline and some dieting, but a severed jugular cannot be fixed. If you can move, you can evade an attack and create the circumstances to access your weapon (pistol or knife). If you cannot move, your firearm will not save you.

3). Consider where you carry. Where can you get to your blaster the fastest? Where can you carry that will allow you to align your pistol on target with minimal preparatory work? Where can you carry so you can draw in a clinch, on your back in the guard, or pushed up against the wall while holding the attacker’s knife at bay? Where can you carry so you can draw and kill with either hand? I’m not going to tell you…you need to develop your own answer here.
4). For the guys that won’t have a gun, there isn’t an easy or clean solution. Listen carefully…there is no secret technique for an unarmed man to defeat a knife attacker. And if you focus on the knife, grabbing for it and hoping the disarm you learned works, well…lets just say we wish you luck. What do you do then? You damage the knife attacker so he thinks about his pain and his self preservation more than stabbing or cutting you. Will you…might you get cut? Maybe…like I said, there is no easy answer.

The knife, like the ground fight, is a reality of possibility. And we keep seeing that our modern enemies like the knife and like its ease of access. To ignore it due to fear, or to make assumptions out of training laziness or physical sloth, is the sure path to failure. Do your study. Gather your intel and data. And then organize your skillsets so that the knifeman is in as much danger from you as you are from him. We live in a time of war, and our enemies use many different weapons.

You would think that by now, these matters would be settled. But what happens is that people do not read much these days and easily forget what they once read. And various bloggers and gun magazines need something to get people's attention so they rehash things over and over until they have simply no interest to anyone (the old 9mm vs. 45 argument comes to mind). The latest involves the red dot discussion in a popular new gun magazine. As history verifies, we have been doing red dots now for nearly a decade. We have learned many things and refuted many myths.

But in case some missed our work, here are a few points:

1). Red Dots have Been Around Forever: Well, yes and no. When this is mentioned they refer to the concept of the red dot used in competition, not in carry weapons. Sure guy like Jarret and others competed successfully with red dots in the Jurassic Age of the 1990s, but when they drove home from the match, that winning pistol was in a gun case and not in a holster.

As far as I can tell, we were the first to mount the specific red dot between the sights with the intent of carrying that pistol in a holster for the purpose of shooting bad guys. And that is a very wide gulf between using a game-centric sporting pistol that lives in a gun case.

2). Red Dots Break: Anything man-made can break. I said that in a class at Front Sight in 1996. In my nearly three decades of instruction I have seen semi auto pistols malfunction, seen their front sights break off, seen extractors and firing pins break (specially MIM parts). But that doesn't mean we should set aside our 1911s and custom Glocks in preference of a fixed sighted S&W Model 10.

All of these breakages were as a result of either poor quality parts, poor maintenance, or improper installation. In truth, almost all could have been avoided by operator maintenance. The red dot is the same. Issues I see today are when a prospective red dot shooter wants to get into the game and opts for an "affordable" red dot. Then that red dot fails on them and they declare the concept to be flawed. No Sherlock...you chose a cheap red dot and cheap red dots fail. It is no different than buying a tier one rifle and putting on a Tasco scope from Walmart on it and then declaring the concept of the scoped rifle to be flawed because the scope failed.

Red dots...and let me be clear...the only one I use and still advocate is the Trijicon RMR...are not all created equal. If it is cheap, it is probably not something you want on a carry gun.

Nothing is perfect and the early RMRs had a few that developed circuitry issues. Trijicon's excellent warranty aside, the new Type 2 RMRs have fixed any issues that were existing in the prior versions. And I will add that we sold thousands of RMRs and the number of issues were very few although sensationalized in the gun media (again, throwing mud at the occupant on the top of the hill sells magazines...or clicks).

3). The individual RMR has to be fitted to the slide: No. That is a myth created by guys that want to sell the buyer a specific service, ie. milling their slide for their RMR. Again, we have been doing this longer than anyone else and the tolerances of the RMR as so tight as to be a non-issue. I measured an original RM02 from 2010 and it has the same dimensions as a modern Type 2 RM07.

And can you imagine if you wanted to change from a Dual Illuminated (battery-free) dot to a red LED model? Or had to send your red dot in for maintenance and Trijicon upgraded you to a new red dot? With that logic, you have to send your slide in to be re-cut and refinished? No, you don't. A properly installed RMR cut will accept all Trijicon RMRs. Unless of course you got that great deal on "dark web" website and your RMR came from China.

4). The pistol is useless if the red dot is occluded or covered with mud: Absolutely not. When I hear things like this I know the writer is a range shooter with likely no real life street or battlefield experience. In class I take a red dot pistol, tape up the RMR so not even Superman with X-Ray vision could see the dot and go through close range gunfighting drills out to 7 yards, getting not only solid hits on the chest of the target, but at closer distances...face shots as well.

I have said it time and time again (insert image of Tony Stark rolling his eyes) the sights or dot do not align the weapon, your grip and body do. The ability to point shoot accurately when necessary is the mark of the professional. The inability to do that is the mark of a range-based duffer.

And incidentally, I have seen many more front sights fly off or get broken off in training, and on the street, than I have seen red dot problems with a quality and properly installed red dot.

The red dot concept is now mainstream and everyone is trying to get their piece of the pizza. And to accomplish that they will try to create confusion about what the best practice is or should be. As well they will try to cheap out to attract those who would never justify buying a $500 pistol optic. Everything we have discovered is here in this blog...free for you to read. It is also freely shared in our Red Dot Combat Pistol classes.